We can hardly claim that the United Nations as an entity is a failure,if we cannot also accept that our disastrous War Against the World is not also an even more disastrous failure. At least the United Nations has not incited spreading violence and chaos throughout the world.

It defies reason that countries who are heavily armed with weapons which include large supplies of nuclear bombs should claim the right to tell other countries that they cannot arm in similar fashion.

It also defies reason that the United States, which is supplying Israel with the bombs which are decimating Lebanon should be involved in any way as an honest broker in calling for a ceasefire. Beyond that, the only solution that the U.S. has to offer is the one-sided demilitarization of the Hezbollah and the return to Israel of two soldiers who may or may not have been in Lebanese territory, with no concessions by Israel on Israeli arms, or the call for the return of 400 prisoners held by Israel who may or may not have been fairly tried and/or convicted.

Our president would be laughable if he were not so pathetic, and at the same time frightening with his faith-based morals and sensibilities. He has lost the support of the world. Now he is losing the support of most of his own countrymen. Many of us are seeking a way in which to free this country of him as president and his dangerous vice- president as well. Bush is surrounded by a coterie of advisers and sympathizers who apparently support his theory that he was appointed by God to lead the world to a greater glory.

The American people have not paid enough attention to two of his most dangerous pronouncements:

If you are not with us, you are with the terrorists. ( This leaves the citizens of a supposedly great democracy without the most important freedom of all­the freedom to disagree.)

I will not accept anything except total victory. (And this man is looked to by the rest of the world to be the honest broker for settling the Iraqi-Lebanese War?! For God’s sake, why?!) (Note: Condoleeza Rice, after all the killing that has happened today, announced that she had decided this was not a good time to go to Lebanon. She was TOLD not to come!!)

There are two very good reasons why Bush has not called for a draft. For one, a draft would only lead to loss of support of those who support him now, because it would mean conscription of the sons and daughters of the rich and righteous who support him now. Second, although there are a number of educated officers and some educated servicemen who felt called to service solely on the basis of loyalty to their country, the bulk of the enlistees are young men and women without education or hope for a better life, and therefore easier to control and lead by propaganda. Life after serivice, if they make it that far, is the only hope most of them have. Unfortunately, many of those who come home will be severely physically and/or emotionally destroyed, with many others continuing to be killers as they were trained to be in the service, which will be their only skill.

The word “terrorist” was coined by the Bush administration in order to brand any and all enemies as evil and criminal. “ Terrorists believe in taking innocent human life for their own purposes and just for the pleasure of killing.” Hell, Bush is the terrorist to beat all terrorists, and he does it in the name of God!

As a veteran of World War II (which my values called upon me to be just because I didn’t have to), I will no longer stand or salute for the flag or the national anthem. I hate what this country has become. I hate the men who have made it this way, and I hate myself for the fact that this is the only way I can hope to add to the call for their removal.

Watched Bush and Blair at their joint news conference on C-Span this morning. Bush did his usual very informative briefing, pressing his fingers to his breast and explaining that, see, the terrorists hate democracy and freedom, and also--especially-- they are willing to destroy innocent human life in order to achieve their ends. That is why we must destroy them. It's too bad you missed it, because that about sums it up for you.

What really impressed me, though, was that Tony Blair said almost exactly the same things. He has been quick and amusing in his appearances for Prime Minister's Questions, but he was a rather quizzical student looking at the master for approval of what he had to say in Washington.

Don't worry about the world, though, because Condi, the compromiser of all compromisers, is going back to the war area again tomorrow with her original offer still intact. All Hezbollah has to do is give up all their arms and return the captured soldiers, and THEN we'll talk.

It has been my impression that every time Ariel Sharon (and perhaps others) have agreed to a cease fire with the Palestinians, they have immediately undertaken to enlarge and increase the size and number of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. At the same time, they have continued construction of the monster defensive wall between the two peoples.

Am I wrong about this? If not, that certainly explains for me the hatred of Israel's neighbors toward Israel.

Further, hearing Condaleeza Rice demand that there can be no talk of truce unless and until Hezbollah surrenders its arms does not even begin to define for me the meaning and philosophy of diplomacy, especially with the United States encouraging the current hostilities in order to degrade the entire country of Lebanon and the spirit of its people.

If anyone has a different (or even better) conception of the situation, let me know.

It was a great disappointment to me to hear both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama bring faith-based politics to the fore. I had decided I would not vote for Hillary anyway because she has been a middle-of-the-roader and continues to support the morally questionable war in Iraq. No wonder the Republicans say the Democrats have no ideas of their own. Sen. Obama was a man I would have voted for as Vice President. He is an excellent speaker (without a written text), a true thinker, and a very attractive man.

Religion is a fine thing when practiced as it is professed. Current thought in America includes Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, and all other Christians. Its chief failure is that it is exclusionary in its perception of atheists and agnostics­there are many of them out here­and dismissive of their views and values. Atheists, so far as I know, believe there is no supreme being with a plan for the universe and its inhabitants. Agnostics (of which I am one) do not believe that there is any way to know that there is or is not a supreme being, which does not interfere with our ability to form our own value systems. It may come as a surprise to many true believers that our values seem to be very close to those of the religious world.

The main difference between true believers and those of us who are considered nonbelievers is that many of those who practice religion learn their values in church or other house of worship, and go forth into the world to do good and love all men. The kindness may be done, but it is often more or less planned in advance and accompanied by a recognizable smile.

Those of us who are thinkers but have no faith tend to operate on a more instinctive level without any planning. Using myself as an example, only because I know more about myself than about others, I accepted a call to deliver meals to shutins for a number of years after I retired and until moving here. I have rescued animals all my life, including a snake in the road and a rat (who literally thanked me). I have given a home to all whose owners could not be found (presently six cats and three dogs) and have seen them through their lives. In the days before we had cell phones, when I saw a car in trouble at the side of the road, I always stopped to say that I would notify the highway patrol, even though that often took me way off my intended route. And on my 21st birthday I enlisted in the army during WWII, which at that time was always for the duration.

These are not great feats of heroism, just the decent little things that my own values force me to do. The point I am trying to make is that if all the faith-based people who villify nonbelievers exhibited the same values, there would be far fewer lost or abandoned animals needing help, and there would be thousands upon thousands of them signing up to help our men who are struggling and dying in a needless war in Iraq and Afghanistan to satisfy the megalomaniacal leader who sent them there.

It is both encouraging and alarming that there are so many letters and articles these days about overpopulation; encouraging because of the growing awareness of the problem, and alarming to realize that it may already be too late, that human beings are breeding themselves to extinction and taking the rest of the world’s creatures with us.

War, hunger, illiteracy, disease, violence, mental illness, and hatred between groups and nations are not discrete problems. Overpopulation, is the BIG problem. It is worldwide, and it is a web in which we are all enmeshed.

Let’s start with some irrefutable facts:

The earth is of unchanging size.

The earth’s resources are finite and being rapidly depleted, especially by the developed and developing nations, the United States leading the pack.

Human beings, like all creatures, do not live forever. We die at different ages from different causes­some old, some young, some ill, some healthy­but we will all die.

Envision two cows in a corral with only enough food to keep one alive. Obviously, one will die. Almost certainly both will eat some of the food, so both will die.

Some human live in big corrals with plenty of food for the body, the mind, and the soul. But millions are living in tiny corrals with little or nothing to sustain them. And, as the numbers increase, they draw ever closer to each other. Folks, it just ain’t gonna work.

There is only one possible solution: Humans will have to start dying faster than they are being born.

Following are my suggestions for partial solutions:

The number of children per family should be limited to one for all those on public support and two for all others, irrespective of personal wealth or religious belief, and it should be strictly enforced. Birth control should range all the way from abstinence to abortion and sterilization. The method should be the prerogative of the woman, and it should be fully funded by the government for those who cannot afford it.

The Hippocratic Oath (first, do no harm) should be rethought, both for the benefit of the people involved and for their caregivers. The evolution of scientific knowledge with regard to prolonging human life can frequently result in more harm than good.